Corridors of Death
by sandhill
Summary: Team RWBY is sent to investigate a pyramid in the South Pole.
1. Chapter 1

The crickets chirped softly as Beacon Academy, the birds and other wildlife slumbered for the night. It appeared that all the students and faculty were asleep too, or at home, but one window in the office area was slightly illuminated from the inside. Inside the office, pulled up on a computer screen, was an email with the subject line: Recent Revelations Betray Late Archeological Findings.

2 Years Earlier...

Teotihuacan, 30 miles North of Mexico City, 0730 hours

The early morning sun reveals what appears to be the remnants of an ancient ruined city, complete with brick streets, and step pyramids. Nearby structures are randomly spotted with moss and decorated naturally with other vegetation. "We've found it!" one man in his 30's excitedly turns to another, who is still transfixed on a monitor. "Will the robot be able to make the turn?"

"Of course it will!" Replied the jubilant one.

They continue to watch as the second man steers an remote controlled robot deep inside the giant pyramid. A beam of light from atop the robot splashes over the strange curvy subteranean structure, but quickly freezes in place to reveal what they were looking at: yellow stonelike spheres.

The view now changes to show the spheres changing hands, men in a line, forming a chain to pass down until all the spheres are counted and stacked inside one truck at a time.

Reaching it's final destination, one of the spheres is carried by a white male wearing a labcoat through the corridors of a modern concrete and metal complex. He uses an id hanging from his coat to open a door, and passes through. It's a dark labratory with a table in the middle surrounded by strange electronic instruments.

"First observations are that this sphere seems coated in either oxidized metal, or perhaps unknown dust from inside the temple excavation site." He speeks into a mp3 recorder, then sets them both down. The sphere is now obviously balanced somewhat on the tabletop, one end appears to taper upwards slightly. It appears more like an egg now from this angle than a sphere.

As his gloved hand releases the sphere the clatter of something brittle sounding catches his attention from the tabletop, instantly sending him into a frustrated state.

"D-_-_!" He fumes rather loudly noticing a small two or three inch section from the sphere has broken away and lies on the table beside it.

Snatching up the mp3 recorder, "Dangit, I mean... A small section just fell away from the sphere, but it's not too deep thankfully. I guess we'll find out what the interior of this thing looks like sooner than later. By the way, it is a creamy er-uh, pearl or ivory white color inside. I'm starting to think this outer layer was just a coating to protect the inside. Maybe... maybe it's not even supposed to look like that naturally. It honestly reminds me of an egg for some reason."

The man tucks the mp3 recorder into his pocket and walks out of the room. However, on the table the outer yeloowy oxidized layer of the sphere continues to disentegrate, cracking, almost melting away. The tapered top of the sphere violently shakes and erupts, strewing debris across the table and floor. A shrill screech emerges from inside what is now obviously an egg.

The view now returns back to the present, of the email on an computer monitor which concludes the last of the letter and pictures of gore:

"The insueing chaos from isolated massacres was nearly impossible to keep hush hush. There still are some posts in blogs, and forums on the deep web mostly on conspiracy sites, no doubt.

In conclusion, good headmaster, we request you're sending your most talented team to inspect this new pyramid, not yet publicly reported, in Antartica with our team of scientists. We appreciate your usual discreetness in this matter, and professionalism. On behalf of the DHS we will guaruntee an $30MM endowment to your institution split up among several anonymous donors."

Headmaster Ozpin couldn't help but smile at the challange for the team he had in mind, and also for what could be done with the large donation too, of course. "Note to self, brief team NOT to touch eggs." he said out loud as he wrote and laughed.

The next day Team RWBY found themselves in the headmaster's office standing lined up in front of his desk. Shifting back and forth nervously.

Each of them wondering which one had gotten them all in trouble, and for what exactly.

Prof Ozpin lay down a paper on his desk, interlaced his fingers and looked up. "Refresh my memory. Do we list survival training for arctic conditions as a requirement for students?"

"I don't think so," was the general reply, as they looked to one another for the answer.

Ozpin hit the intercom button to his executive assistant. "Donna, add 'arctic survival' to our list or requirements."

"Yes sir," replied a voice sounding like it had came through a can over the intercom.

"On second thought, add desert training, jungle, sea, We might should even do joint training with NASA just in case." The headmaster thought out loud.

"Yes sir." *click*

"Anyway, girls, a very generous donor notified me that they would be more than happy to make a contribution to our humble establishment if we could just send a team to..."

"The beach!" Ruby interjected.

"No."

"the mountains!" Weiss asked.

"Nope."

"An amusement park?" Blake asked.

"Antartica." Ozpin stated dryly.

"Oooh." They all sighed.

"Can we bring a penguin home?" Yang asked.

"Yes-I mean no! No penguins here."

"Aahhww!" they all groaned.

"It'll count for extra credit." Ozpin grinned wolfishly. "And besides, I'll fail you if you don't. Aheh!"

They all nodded in quiet sour faced assent.

"All you have to do is protect the scientists if you can, but mostly keep from freezing. Oh, and don't touch the eggs. Whatever you do don't touch the eggs."

The next thing team RWBY knew they were all on a ship headed for antartica. There wasn't much to do onboard. Much of the day was obsessing over trivial things, or going over their plans, once again with the scientist.

Basically, they were there as security, chaperoneing a group of phd types as they measured the pyramid with their instruments and made observations.

"Glad I double layered my undershorts." Yang scoffed staring out a porthole at the water and listening to the icy wind outside.

Ruby, Weiss, and some of the scientists were sitting around a table at a card game. A tv rambled on in the background.

"Would anyone like hot coacoa?" Blake asked as she walked in.

They had been a few days at sea now, and as they continued further south hot coa coa was the go -to fix for coldness.

She poured hot water from a pot into their styrefoam cups.

A few hours later an announcement broke over the ship intercom. "Attention everyone. This is the captain speaking. I think you'll be glad to hear we've spotted your destination. Thank you for sailing Chuckabo Cruise Line." He joked and abruptly hung up.

Everyone excitedly popped up from their chairs and hastily covered themselves with their jackets to go outside and try to see what they could.

"Watch out. You don't want to fall over the side." One of them said as they all looked over the rail, stepping across ice and snow on the deck.

It was only a few hours before dark. "We'll have to wait until tomorrow to make landfall." Another of the scientists said.

As they all stared out in admiration of the natural beauty, none of them noticed or care about the hunter's moon, hanging low, in the night sky above them like a giant pizza cutter.

Ok, that last part was just a joke.


	2. Chapter 2

Miles above the earth's surface, three armor clad figures assembled together within a space ship decorated in what might best be described as a combination of Aztec meets gothic techno.

The screen they stood in front of was a blown up image of an artic landscape.

A neon white blue beam from the ship suddenly arced downward, the plasma, cutting through the yards thick sheet of ice like a hot knife through butter.

Antartica 0900 hours -

A huge transport vehicle labored over the icy snow powdered surface. Inside, team RWBY gazed out the windows as the scientists chattered among themselves. They were almost at the site.

They had wanted to leave earlier, but the scientists had pointed out how there would be a significant difference in temperature, and that they should wait for sunrise. Every little bit counted.

The location was ironically the same place that had previously served as an whaling factory. Sailors would haul their harvested whale carcasses to the factory where blubber would be made into oil.

That was, until the mysterious horrific event had occured 100 years ago here. Blood had stained the floor, walls, and even ceiling of the shacks. No survivers had been found.

Ruby caught sight of the out of place structures now, in the distance as they steadily approached.

To everyone's surprise, a bolt of what looked like lightening flashed for a moment in the distance.

"What was that? Are there thunderstorms here?"

Inside, penguins stood around a table in the middle of one of the shacks. "C'mon red!" One sqwawked as another spun the roulette wheel. After the people had all been massacred a century earlier, the penguins had turned the place into a casino town. One of them called Piggy, oddly enough, who had the habit of wearing a pig mask, spotted the transport vehicle outside. (If you can guess what show this is a reference to, I'll give you a free copy of my Kindle book.) "Oh, crap!" Piggy gasped.

"Craps? No, I want to play roulette-"

"No! we have visitors! Everybody put the stuff away and pretend to be penguins again." He explained.

All the penguins acted normal again. A friend of him stared at Piggy's mask. His eyes kept going back and forth with the mask and making eye contact with him. "Oh!" Piggy said, plucking off the mask and tucking it away.

Their transport had arrived, and team RWBY found themselves peering over the strange scenery. The shacks had windows, and still contained remnants of daily life. It was a ghost town except for a few stray penguins shuffleing away out of fear.

"Ahhwww! So cute." White cooed.

"Remember what the headmaster said: 'No penguins-"

"Ahhw!" White groaned.

"Maybe we can make a diversion on the way back... that or just plan a visit to the zoo when we get home."

"What the!?" One of the scientists could be heard. Everyone looked his way. He was standing at the edge of something that he was looking down at. Since it was cold, the sound travelled further than usual, so team RWBY could overhear.

"The satelite images, and map didn't have this on it. How in the world did this get here?"

As everyone clamored over that way they all stopped to gaze downward into a vertical shaft that never seemed to end.

Whatever had made it cut it perfectly at a slight angle through the permafrost and ice. After a few feet down it was dark.

It could still potentially be dangerous to slide down though. who knew how far it descended, or how much speed one could build up while sliding?

"This entrance isn't supposed to be here. We were looking for the other access point..." The scientists talked among themselves.

"It doesn't look like anyone has been here recently though."

"If they did, maybe we could use this hole they cut to enter the way they did. We need to know, anyway, what they came for."

Metal grappling hooks clanked against the packed snow surface as the scientists all unpacked their climbing equipment.

Team RWBY followed their lead.

One of the predators checked his wrist computer before he strode to a coffin like landing tube. His other hand held a spear like weapon.

They each strapped themselves in their own compartment, the doors sealed them in and launched.

Two of the team had decided to go ahead of the scientists, and the other two of team RWBY would be the last one's down.

Ruby was the last one. She gripped her rope, and began to inch backwards down the shaft. she could hear the echoes of the others talking down below her.

It seemed like an eternity rapelling down the icy corridor. She almost began to feel clostraphobic as it got darker and darker inside. "Hope I'm not climbing into my grave." She huffed, her arms beginning to tire.

"Uhh!" Someone either moaned or yelled. "What's going on down there?" She thought.

Glancing down she immediately noticed two things: 1. someone had lit a flare, it looked, inside the an opening or cavernous area which they were supposed to be headed for, and 2. Everyone was already there, and she was being a slow poke. Hop-hop-hop. She hurried down and slipped a bit as she reached the bottom. Whoosh!

How irritating. That hadn't happened the whole time and now she'd look like a newb... Her jaw dropped. It was a giant pyramid! Who would have guessed THAT would be underneath the ice?

For a moment they all just stood there in awe taking in the sight. The pyramid had several steps that led up similar to the way an Aztec temple, or ziggurat, was constructed.

Some of the base was covered by ice, but an entrance was visible about halfway up it's side.

One of the scientists began to ascend the steps towards the entrance. His name was Dr. Catalano.

Everyone shuffled forward, like penguins, to follow him.

The motifs, and carvings decorating the pyramid steps could easily have taken up hours of study, but there would be time for that later possibly.

Everyone began to chatter excitedly again, like a bunch of kids on a field trip.

As Catalano stepped inside the pyramid he felt something give way underneath his boot. It startled him, and he stepped backwards out of instinct, thinking that the floor would collapse, and backed into the person behind him who hadn't expected him to stop so abruptly.

"Oof!" The femal scientist exhaled, her breath coming out visibly in the cold air.

"Dentyne Ice?" He guessed as he noticed it.

"No, it's just really cold in here, and you knocked the breath out of me."

"I stepped on something." Catalano gasped.

Yards beneath their feet deep within the bowels of the pyramid an metal container came to life, spilling out liquid and vapor as a hideous figure held inside began to emerge. It was an alien queen kept in a state of hibernation through the liquid nitrogen, but was now lifted by chains and manuevered above a nesting type area. She involuntarily began to lay eggs, which were carried away, to her immense displeasure, by conveyer belt to an incubation room.

Dr. Catalano could have sworn he heard an shriek echoe throughout the corridors as he pressed forward again, but chalked it off to the creepy atmosphere of the pyramid. No doubt, human sacrafices had been performed here, but he couldn't allow himself to become supersticious with the others around.

They wandered through the stone corridors aimlessly, at first, trying to get a feel for direction. "I think we should leave a couple of flares strategically, so we don't get lost inside." he suggested, which was really an order.

So, the other scientists began to leave a flare at each major intersection type hallway so that they could return to them from the smaller hallways and rooms which they explored.

Gibson, a Ph.d in antropology, was checking out what seemed like an empty room with hyroglyphics covering the walls. He shined his helmet light over the pictures and pressed a button to record with the camera built into it. It would record whatever direction he was facing, and could pick up the audio too. "These hyroglyphics seem like egyptian ones, but I'm not an egyptoligist. It just seems strange that part of the pyramid seems Aztec, but there are egyptian hyroglyphs inside."

The light now poured over a structure in the middle of the room that resembled a stone table with a hole in the middle. The stone table seemed stained with something dark, especially around the hole. Gibson just kept shining around the rest of the room now, at the other pictures when the room's purpose began to sink in.

"Sacrafice." He breathed to himself. Suddenly, the flutter of wings startled him, and he spun around the beam of light whipping, throwing off his balance. Something was on the table, crawling out of the hole. "Riiiiiitt!" It hissed angrily, and lunged towards him.

As they heard the stifled scream echo throughout the halls Ruby could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand up and her heartbeat begin to quicken.


	3. Chapter 3

Happy Halloween everyone. I hope this is a little scary for you at least. My kind wife removed some of the horrible punctuation, so I thank her here.

The trio of predators strode towards the opening in the yards-thick ice surface that their ship had cut. As they kept their eyes peeled, one of them spotted a group of penguins headed towards an old wooden shack. "Hmm... think I'll double check my shoulder weapon to make sure it's zeroed in...," he thought to himself. "Hey, watch this." He spoke to the other two in their language.

"Bzzzztt!" The three laser sight dots in the shape of a triangle shone on the side of the shack, immediately followed by a different colored more powerful laser blast from his shoulder weapon that punched a hole in the wall, and part of the roof. "Psst-crraasshh!" Penguins dove for cover, and for a moment, he could have sworn he saw one reach back to grab a pig mask before scurrying off to safety.

The other two looked back at him, but none of them said anything for fear of being the only one to have seen it. They just shook it off and went on their way.

Inside the pyramid was a frenzy of scurrying and frantic emotion. Blake suddenly became aware of how far away she had gotten from the others, and had quickly tried to correct it, but spotting something crawling along the floor, she stepped back, and before she could react, had set off some sort of pressure plate.

The wall and floor she was near spun around 180 degrees, and she was now in another part of the pyramid. "What the-?" she breathed to herself.

Back at the sacrificial chamber, the scientists and team RWBY stared down at the unlucky first scientist to make contact with someone... or something. They were still trying to figure it out. Blood had spattered on the doorway and floor around him, but none of them had seen anyone or anything that had done it.

Ruby reached down to her PDW, took the safety off, and made sure it was ready to go. It was an MP5k. Usually she was the defacto sniper since her scythe doubled as a rifle, but she was now glad the headmaster had insisted everyone bring at least one back up. Soon she had linked back up with the others. "Is everyone besides him okay?" she asked.

"We don't know. Blake is missing and another one of the scientists," Yang said, fishing something out of her vest pocket.

"We'll have to check his helmet camera when we get back to the ship," Dr. Catalano said. "For now, our priority is getting his body back. We have to pause everything for now."

Yang tried to reach the others with her walkie talkie, but couldn't. "Something about these walls is interfering with reaching them." she said gruffly. "Ruby, you and White stick together and try to bring back the missing scientist and Blake. I'll make sure everyone else gets back to the ship."

"Okay," both Ruby and White said as their eyes met, and then they were on their way.

Three masked faces peered down the shaft cut through the ice, but even with their heat vision they couldn't see anything. "Kashink!" The lead predator's claws emerged from his gauntlet. "So... should we cut the ropes, or should we leave the intruders a chance to get out?"

An alarm began to chirp on a device that another predator wore on his belt. He glanced down and became furious. "Whoever they are, they just activated the pyramid 30 minutes ago." They all quickly grabbed a rope and began to rappel down.

As Dr. Catalano and another male scientist carried the body of their friend, Yang lead the group. As she approached the entrance, she could hear noises echo down the shaft and saw the ropes moving.

The anger rose up in her. "What!?" she said more to herself than anyone else, and rushed forward to look up and see who was fooling with their equipment.

Suddenly, fear replaced her emotions as she saw three armored warriors making their way down the shaft. She spun around. "Go! Hide yourselves!" she whispered.

There was something in her voice that got the scientist's attention. Mark, the other man helping carry the body, set down his end and rushed with Tonya, the female scientist, back towards the pyramid.

Catalano was reluctant to move though. "Put him down." she grabbed Dr. Catalano's arm. "I promise we'll get him out of here." Yang tugged at Catalano's sleeve to pull him back towards the pyramid. Where they would hide, she wasn't sure, but "One problem at a time," she thought.

Blake unholstered her pistol as soon as the door had stopped and turned on the flashlight attached underneath its barrel. She could see in the dark with her cat-like eyes, but not in complete darkness. "Guiding me-guiding me-through the night... flashlight... my flashlight," she sang quietly to herself to keep from being spooked and arrived at a place where she had to choose which direction to go.

There were two ways from this place, one off to the left and one to the right. As she stood there wondering which way to go, a noise caught her attention from her left, and she spun to sweep the corridor with her light.

"Ah! That's bright." a male scientist named Tom said. Blake had come so close to pulling the trigger out of fear, but her training had paid off. "I guess our only option is this way, then," she grinned, turning to the right.

It led to a large majestic room. Fierce statues lined either side. Some were monsters they had never seen before, while a few were human warriors wearing armor.

This room either had some sort of skylight or energy source to illuminate it, and Blake now cut off her flashlight. As she stared at one of the statues, she caught something out the corner of her eye. She examined it with her periphrial vision without turning her head so as not to give away that she had spotted it.

It was some sort of little hideous monster about the size of a football crawling from the direction they had come from. The thing had been tracking them! "Freeze!" she yelled, spinning and pointing her pistol towards it. Tom was facing the statue behind her and shakily raised his arms, not having a clue what was going on.

"Hhissss!" The defiant little booger used its back legs to try and spring forward at her face, but before it could even get halfway, "Blamm!" Her gun went off, the room echoed, and it went flying backwards, bouncing across the floor, twitching, and then ceased from moving.

"Jingle-jingle." The shell casing bounced across the stone floor in the now silent room. "Good shot," Tom said. "Now, what was that... thing?"

"I don't know, but it looked like it was trying to lock lips with me."

"Hmm... note to self, ask permission first," Tom said under his breath.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing."

"We're gonna need someone to come FIND US before it's through," Ruby complained out loud to Weiss as they rounded another corner, irritated at not finding anyone yet. There had been a couple of interesting rooms they had seen, but they didn't have time to gawk at them since finding the two strays was more important.

Just then, they heard a gunshot echo down through the passage they were walking in, and they began to run towards it. Weiss ran past the opening, but stopped and wheeled around when Ruby stopped to check the room and called after her.

It was Blake and the scientist! "What are you two up to just hanging around here?" Weiss chided them. "We've been-"

"What?" Blake asked. "Some stupid door thing spun me around and I couldn't go back."

"We wound up here," the scientist added. "With a violent face-sucking monster."

"That's nice..." Ruby raised an eyebrow.

As Yang reached the top step, a laser bolt streaked above her head, smacking just above the door. "Kerassh!" She covered her face to shield herself from the debris clattering down around her.

Smoke mixed with a strange, ozone-burning smell wafted through the air as she spun around and unleashed the fury of her shotgun gauntlets, "Blam!-Blam!-Blam!" then dove into the entrance.

From such a range, the shot was probably so spread out she doubted she had done any more than slow their pursuers. She got to her feet and began to run with the others.

Outside the pyramid, a neon trickle ran down the side of one of the predator youth's leg. He had already opened his medical kit and quickly covered the wound. He looked up to let them know it was only a minor one and wouldn't slow him down by resuming his stance, and carrying his spear.

They all heard, and caught sight of, a shotgun cartridge rolling down the front steps of the pyramid and walked over to examine it.

The lead predator picked it up, holding it for them all to see, and burst into laughter. The others joined him, and he passed it off to the wounded predator as a keepsake.

"Splat!"

The trio instinctively wheeled around and spread out. There had been a body on the ground behind them, but they hadn't had time to examine it in all the chaos. The chest of whoever it was had erupted with several face-huggers splattering out.

Their leader waved the other two to go ahead into the pyramid, and then quickly turned on his shoulder weapon to exterminate the little vermin crawling out.

"All I know is they went this way," Yang said, for the second time at least. Everyone was tense, never knowing if they would round the next corner to run into one of their friends, or be pounced upon by those mysterious armored men.

Suddenly, Ruby and the others popped out from around a corner. "Yang! Dr. Catalano? I thought you guys were headed back up," Ruby asked.

"Turn around," Yang said, trying to help them stop talking and move.

"What?"

"Turn around! We've got to find another way out of here. There are some pretty sick dudes out front blocking our way," Yang countered.

"What's the plan?" Weiss asked.

"They seemed to be following us, so I'm thinking that if we can find a way to slip out the back of this thing, we can make our way out while they're still wandering around in here."

"There's a corridor past the statue room that hasn't been explored yet, so it's gotta be that way if there is one," Blake suggested. Everyone agreed to give it a try and started moving.

As they were walking past the opening to the statue room, Ruby caught something out the corner of her eye, which got Blake's attention as well. "It's one of those face-suckers," Blake huffed. "Watch out Ruby," she warned, as Ruby stepped forward to take aim.

"Hhaaarriissshhh!" came the deep, concussive warning call of something much bigger lurking in the dark. A couple more little face-suckers scurried forward, forerunners to a large alien queen which emerged on the other side. Tonya, the female scientist's, jaw flew open to let out a blood-curdling scream.

"Pop-pop-pop-popapapop-pop!" Ruby's MP5 sprayed in the direction of the vermin. One of the face-huggers had leapt towards her, as either an attack, or presenting itself as a shield, since it momentarily blocked Ruby from hitting its queen.

Blake quickly took some shots at other face-huggers which were dangerously close, and used a statue for cover. Ruby moved behind her, and out of the way so the others could enter the room.

Weiss was beside them now, and Yang had moved into position to block the door to protect the scientists. The alien queen, by this time, had with surprising speed and strength, climbed the wall, using it to rush towards them.

Weiss emptied her revolver at the nearby face-suckers, and tried to slow the queen down before reloading. Both she and Ruby had emptied their guns.

Yang emptied one of her shotgun gauntlets at the queen "Ka-foom! ka-foom! ka-foom!" forcing her to jump down from the wall, and hide behind a statue, which took the brunt of the attack. The statue's arm blasted off, and its head rolled forward and crushed one of the face-huggers, and continued rolling like a soccer ball.

Ruby dropped the gun by her side, reaching back to grab something she felt more comfortable with: her scythe. After all, there was plenty of swinging space in this room now, so what was a girl supposed to do? The blade flickered from the overhead lights as she pulled it around.

The room was temporarily quiet from shooting. All of the visible face-huggers were dead, and the queen was still somewhere behind one of the statues.

"Ruby?" Yang called out from the other side of a statue from her.

"Yeah, Yang?"

"Stay put there while we reload, and then we'll cover you to get back over here."

"I'm fine-" Ruby began to say, but her breath was taken away from the sight of the alien queen's fiendish grin, just before it lurched towards her.

She wielded the scythe in an arc at the face of the monster, but the queen grasped it between her claws. Its mouth opened, and a hideous little worm-like thing with teeth on the end sprung forward snapping, and just barely missing, as Ruby leaned her head back as far as it could go. "Hss! snap-snap-snap!"

Yang yelled a sort of he-woman war cry and opened up one of her gauntlets, nearly blowing off one of the queen's legs. This very much got her attention now, and she released the scythe, and hobbled towards her.

Blake slashed the queen's arm with her sword as she approached, and ducked back. Weiss punched forward into her side from the other direction with her rapier. With so many threats, the queen was becoming confused. Yang withdrew out of reach, backwards into the safety of the corridor.

Irritated, the queen spotted an outlet for her fury. She spun, using her momentum to crash downward with the full force of her scorpion-like tail into Blake. Her tail melted through her like butter, crushing the statue behind her to the point that it crumbled over. Weiss screamed.

***The scene narrows to widescreen***

Ruby's boots pattered across the stone floor from behind the queen,

Leaping, running up her back,

Heaving her scythe down with all her might,

The gleaming fang-like blade,

Hungrily biting down, sinking into the queen's head.

***Film returns to normal view again***

She panted, as she stood there, the queen having collapsed into a heap. Her hands were tightly grasping the scythe still, but she doubted she could jerk it free from the thing's thick skull.

Yang stepped around it. "Blake? Blake?" She searched the statue rubble. Weiss was paler than usual. She looked like she might faint.

"What?"?" came a reply from the corner. It was Blake!

"I thought you were..." Yang began, almost not believing her eyes.

"I used a shell of myself to trick her so you guys could finish her off."

Weiss scowled, and left the room. Ruby finally wrenched her weapon free, and hopped down to follow.

When all of the chaos with the others had started, scientists Mark and Tonya hadn't waited around for the winner to be chosen, and found themselves in a strange room far away.

"We'll just hide in here until the others come back by and then head out with them," Mark said, when they had found a room with some sort of sarcophagus in it. It was large enough for them both to crouch behind it.

"Okay. Who were those men outside the pyramid anyway?" Tonya asked.

"I don't know. What was that big ugly thing inside that we left team RWBY fighting?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I hope they're okay."

"At least we're alone." He leaned forward with a smile. She instantly smiled back, but played hard to get. "Mark! We can't."

They had been trying to keep their relationship a secret onboard the ship, "But now that they had a moment..." he thought. She stood up. "Look at this thing!" Tonya was amazed by the intricate carvings on the sarcophagus lid.

At first, Mark was reluctant to betray their hiding place, but he stood for a quick peek. "It kinda looks like a puzzle," he thought out loud.

"Are you sure?" she asked, eyeing him coyly, and pulling down the zipper of her vest.

"Yeah," he responded, then looked up to notice she wasn't talking about the sarcophagus anymore.

"You know, it's bad luck to fool around in such dangerous situations."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, it's just that whenever a couple does that in a horror movie they usually end up getting killed."

Suddenly, metal claws popped out of a shimmering figure that had been standing quietly nearby. The two scientists gasped and screamed as it slashed and stabbed them repeatedly, his unseen comrade joining in the mayhem.

Happy Halloween! ;) There'll be at least one more chapter, maybe more in this story. Ttfn.


	4. Chapter 4

Yang continued to lead the way through the dark corridors until they finally began to notice things brightening up. They all squinted and carefully made their way down a back exit of the pyramid. Yang tried her best to scan around the opening in the ice that they had shimmied down for the warriors who had attacked them earlier, but didn't see anyone.

As they neared the body of the scientist who was first to die almost everyone became nauseated. Something had happened, or someone had seriously shredded the body. There were also a few of the dead face huggers nearby.

Dr. Catalano just stared in disbelief. "Maybe those things lay eggs..." Blake began, but wasn't sure how to finish her sentence in an diplomatic way.

"Inside their victims?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah." Blake answered.

"We'd better keep going Yang prodded the group.

"We can't take him as is." Catalano began. "we'll have to come back when it's more safe, and we have a sleeping bag, or adequate container to put him in."

"I'll go up last, to cover y'all." Ruby volunteered, changing her scythe into it's rifle mode.

"Wait, where are the other two?" Catalano asked. "Mark and tonya."

"I don't know. Last time I saw them was when we fought that big ugly thing." Yang said.

"Should've stuck with the group." Ruby shrugged.

Yang was starting to look frustrated. "Yang, how about you escort Dr. Catalano up top, and Ruby, Blake and I can go round up Mark and Tonya?" Weiss suggested.

"Okay, but Ruby: you stay here to guard our 6 so nobody climbs up behind us unexpected."

"Sure thang."

Weiss and Blake hurried back towards the pyramid, beginning to grow sick of the infernal thing by now.

The two predators inside the sarcaphegus room were careful to study before reaching out to touch the intricately carved combination lock. The lid was much more than decoration. A clicking sound echoed through the room and a portion of the lid lit up as it began to slide away to reveal several blaster rifles inside.

A humming sound permeated throughout the pyramid as it seemed to come alive and then gradually subsided. Their were some dimly lit lights throughout the pyramid now, it seemed. The two predators growled triumphantly and raised their blasters in celebration.

Just then, their leader entered the room and joined them. "Hurry! You've just awoke the other one. We need to hit it hard before it can acclimate from the hyper sleep and then we can get back and recieve our honors." They shuffled from the room and began the hunt throughout the pyramid.

Having shed it's constraints, and the hypersleep chamber, the other alien queen emerged from it's prison. Fierce anger and violence ran through it's body. She could smell the blood of another alien queen wafting throughout the pyramid. Someone had killed another alien, and so she began to track her new enemy.

"It looks like more blood trails." Blake said, as she and Weiss made their way inside the pyramid again. "We'll hope for the best, but we need to follow it to see if if leads to the scientists." Weiss said. "I'll lead the way to cover you so you can focus on tracking... Just tell me if the trail turns a corner or something."

"Okay." Blake nodded, and they began. It wasn't long before they were led to the sarcaphegus room though.

"Oh $# ! What the-?" Blood and gore was everywhere. They weren't even recognizeable, so Blake and Weiss had to just assume the scientist's tattered clotheing meant that they were the gruesome victims lying before them.

Apparently, someone had opened the sarcaphegus, but to their surprise it didn't look anything like a person had been buried inside. There were some sort of equipment and rifles, but a few were missing. By now the entire pyramid felt like it was pulsing with energy and even heating up. Condensation dripped from the ceilings.

Ruby was still waiting at the bottom of the icey shaft, outside the pyramid, bored, and so had squatted down to rest while she waited for Yang and Dr. catalano to shimmy up the rappeling ropes. An angry shriek came from the pyramid entrance, and Ruby looked up to her horror to see an alien queen emerging, and rushing down the steps.

Had that alien she had killed come back to life? With no time to think, she fired a couple of hasty shots at the queen, and began to pull her way up the ropes.

The predators had heard the alien's war cry and ruhed out behind her. By this time she was almost at the shaft opening, and they fired their rifles at her. Laser beams flew through the freezing cold air, leaving trails of steam behind, one of them connected squarely in her back. "Rooaaarrrr!" The alien's voice echoed, seeming to fill the entire cavern. It wheeled around, and eyed the predators grinning with malice.

For possibly the first time in their lives the predators tasted the same fear that they had instilled in others. The show was on.

Once they had discovered that rescue was no longer an option for the scientists Blake and Weiss helped themselves to two of the rifles, and left, to catch back up with the others. "What the heck was that?!" Blake gasped, nervous from the alien screech.

They were just about to round the corner which they knew led to the entrance, but ducked back at the noise. Weiss peeked around the edge and saw the three predators firing rifles like the one's she and Blake now had. they must have been shooting at another alien, because it sounded an awful lot like the one they had fought earlier in the statue room. Blake peeked around too and raised her rifle to fire but Weiss stopped her. "Wait. Let them kill the big monster first."

Out on the steps, the alien was already more than halfway up, strafeing and dodging laser bolts from the rifles. A few had caught her a few times before she had gotten this far, but the predators were amazed at her resiliance. They instinctively split up. One ran down the stairs and away from the alien, while the other two stayed at the entrance but moved away from each other.

The alien just grimmaced evily and went for the bait anyway. First, she feinted moving up towards one near the entrance, but then wheeled around and used the stone steps to launch herself back down towards the lone predator who had ran down the pyramid. He had spun around just in time to realize she was flying through the air towards him, but didn't have enough time to raise his weapon.

"Wham!" Dust like snow puffed out around them as she slammed him to the ground. One down. The other two predators opened up, not fearing about accidentally hitting their comrade anymore. "Tshew-tchu-tchu-tssshuu!" The rifles sounded like a flock of angry birds.

Some of them connected, and the queen knew she was being weakened. However, she could still smell the blood of the other alien that had been killed on Ruby's weapon, and now the ice chute didn't seem like such a bad idea. At least she might be able to bring down the one who had killed another alien.

Meanwhile, the aching muscles of Ruby's arms were working furiously to pull her way up, her boots slipping akwardly as she tried everything she could to distance herself from the alien. For the first time since she had started climbing she afforded a glance backward. Just then the alien's head popped through the opening, and it began to climb up, sinking it's claws into the ice. It was bleeding profusely, but still managed to haul itself upwards. Ruby needed just a bit more time, so she switched her rifle into the scythe again and chunked it down at the alien's face. "Whop!"

"Wreaaaaakkk!" The alien screamed with fury and pain. It shook off the blow that had sliced it's face open only to see Ruby's boots climb over the opening and out of view. The alien redoubled it's efforts, it's strength motivated by anger. "yang!" Ruby yelled.

Yang and Dr. Catalano spun around. They looked surprised to see her already up so soon after them. "Alien..." Ruby gasped, barely able to breath from exaustion. "Alien!"

Yang rushed forward to help her, but Ruby turned back towards the opening and raised her Mp5k. The queen emerged, wrath and defiance in it's face.

Yang blasted her with her shotgun gauntlet, temporarily stunning the beast; and Ruby opened up on her chest pumping the full magazine into her. "Blam!" "Brr-rrrr-rrrrpppp!"

The alien seemed like it couldn't move, so Yang emptied two more shells into it, blowing it backwards. It disappeared from sight as it fell back down the shaft. "cool." Ruby was pretty sure she heard Dr. Catalano say.

Epilogue:

Back at Beacon Academy, Ruby thought of how quickly the events of the mission had transpired. They were all fortunate to be alive. Dr. Catalano was now a Facebook friend.

Once the two predators had saw the alien's body plummet back down the shaft, they were content to collect her tail claw as a trophy and didn't want to fight these exceptional humans anymore. The predator wounded by the shotgun has totally recovered from his injury and has now enrolled in a community college program and changed his hunting hobby to racketball.

The other predator did not return our messages, but team RWBY confirmed that he also became friends with them on Facebook.

The predator who died was identified and convicted postumously as the father of several alien children, and had conspired the hunt their aliean mother as a means to not pay child support... or so that's what the alien tabloids say.

THE END

Belated Happy Thanksgiving! Feel free to check out any more of my stories if you like. This one was partly an anime so had zany elements added for humor.


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